IntroductionThe
Halcro brand name is famed in the world of audiophiles, most notably
for offering amplifiers that have been lauded as “the best” by many in
the know. In an effort to move past the constantly shrinking
two-channel audiophile world, Halcro has expanded their product
offerings to include a home theater line, consisting of multi-channel
amplifiers and a preamplifier-processor (review pending). The amplifier
line consists of two-, three-, five- and seven-channel units. The MC50
five-channel unit which retails for $5,990 is the one we’re reviewing
here.

Halcro’s parent company Minelab makes technologically advanced metal
detectors and land mine scanning equipment. In the security industry,
it is imperative that every product be designed and built to
astronomical standards, as lives are literally on the line. Without
question, Halcro has adopted these same high standards for their audio
gear. The build quality of the MC50 is spectacular, even in comparison
to the best that more established audio companies have to offer. Under
the hood, Halcro didn’t utilize traditional amplifier technology.
Instead, Halcro opted to employ their high-speed-switching Lyrus Class
D topology, which is a somewhat out-of-the-box move, but there are many
advantages to be had with such a design, including benefits from heat
production, size, output and beyond.

Halcro’s lead physicist Bruce Candy has modified the Class D circuitry
to greatly reduce the distortion that is intrinsic in a traditional
Class D circuit amplifier when operating at higher power. Candy wrote a
paper to the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, explaining
how the Lyrus Class D circuit was modified to reduce distortion. In
simple terms, the Lyrus circuit modifies the clock signal, which
controls the pulse-width modulator in the output stage to produce the
proper phase compensation to minimize distortion.

In addition to the Lyrus circuit’s unique application of its Class D
architecture, the MC series of amplifiers also features Halcro’s
Reliability Assurance Service (HRAS). This advanced alert system allows
the amplifier to be connected to a computer system. HRAS allows the
user to set the service up to notify their Halcro dealer of the
detected fault, so that they can immediately begin the repair process.

The above features are packed into a 52.3-pound, 17-inch wide,
seven-inch high and 16-inch deep attractively designed chassis. The
brushed aluminum front panel is divided by a vertical accent a couple
of inches from the left edge of the panel with a horizontal detail line
across the bottom portion. When the amplifier is viewed from above, one
can see that this accent is the front portion of an oval that is
reminiscent of the vertical walls from Halcro’s monoblock amplifiers.
The power button and a status light are to the left of the accent. To
the right are five LEDs that provide the status of each channel. The
back panel has balanced and single ended inputs, a switch to select
which input is utilized and plastic-shielded binding posts for each
channel. To the left of the amplifier channels are the communication
card ports, with RS-232, remote trigger and Ethernet connections. On
the right side of the panel are the master power switch, fuse and IEC
standard power connector. The MC series can be rack-mounted and also
comes with aluminum feet for stacking.

The MC50 is a powerhouse, putting out five channels of 350 watts into a
four-ohm load. Total harmonic distortion is less than .007 percent at
1kHz, and less than .03 percent at 7kHz. The noise rating is provided
in the unfamiliar (to me) format of less than 30nV/sqrt at 1 kHz. The
efficiency rating is greater than 94 percent, which keeps the amplifier
running cool.

Set-up
The MC50 was quite simple to set up in both my reference stereo and
theater systems. In my stereo system, I utilized my Krell 300iL as a
preamplifier, driving the MC50 through its single-ended inputs. The
MC50 powered a pair of MartinLogan Ascent’s. Installing the MC50 in my
theater system was equally easy. I flipped the input switches from
single-ended to balanced and was then able to utilize the balanced
outputs of the Halcro SSP100 and Krell HTS 7.1 processors. The speakers
utilized in my theater system with the MC50 included Canton Ergo series
speakers and Monster THX Select speakers. The MC50’s binding posts have
plastic shrouds, which I presume have something to do with EU or
Australian safety regulations. These shrouds can make connecting some
spade-equipped speaker cables difficult or impossible. I recommend that
you either use banana plug-equipped cables or try the particular spade
connections before purchasing your speaker cables.

Music and MoviesAfter
letting the amplifier break in for a few days, I began my critical
listening with Shawn Mullins’ Soul’s Core (Sony). The detail in the
vocals on the song “Anchored in You” was quite good, clearly
reproducing the raspiness in Mullins’ voice while at the same time
giving the voice a solid position in the sound stage. The sound stage
was slightly further back than I am used to, but it was appropriately
large, with a good sense of space and placement of the individual
sources.

Continuing
with male vocalists, I listened to Elvis Presley’s Elvis is Back (DCC).
Elvis’ rendition of “Fever” has always been a favorite of mine. The
Halcro continued with an incredible amount of detail, both in the
reproduction of vocals and instruments and also the sense of space. The
positioning of each of the sound sources was well defined within the
sound stage. I could easily hear someone keeping time in the background
and imperfections in the recording.

Picking
up the pace, I played System of a Down’s album Toxicity (Sony). The
song “Chop Suey!” is a frenetically-paced, energetic song. The MC50 had
no problems delineating between all the components of the aural assault
that comprises this track. I am used to listening to this track with
amplification coming from my recently discontinued Krell 300 iL. The
Halcro was just as detailed but seemed to be less forward, favoring
polite finesse over force.

I
wanted to see how the Halcro did with bass, so I spun up Crystal
Method’s Vegas (Outpost Records) and went straight to one of my
favorite tracks, “Busy Child.” This track features a deep and powerful
synthesizer soundtrack. Listening to this track reinforced my prior
impressions. The Halcro was extremely detailed and was powerful enough
to reproduce any signal I fed it at volumes much higher than I would
normally listen to, without any signs of harshness or compression.
Despite having plenty of power, the overall character of the Halcro
remained polite.

I
then switched to movies and watched “The Chronicles of Narnia: The
Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” (Disney Home Entertainment), which I
had just watched for another review. I paid particular attention to the
intelligibility of vocals. The Halcro did an excellent job. All of the
vocals were easy to understand, solid and full-bodied. In the final
battle sequence, it was easy to keep track of distinct sounds as they
moved from channel to channel without changing character.

Another
classic demo movie that I had recently watched was “The Fifth Element”
(Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment), so I replayed some of the scenes
that were fresh in my memory. As before, the vocals were extremely
intelligible and had plenty of detail, conveying the nuances of each
particular voice, as well as differentiating between background voices.
The sonic character remained consistent from channel to channel without
any noticeable change. Due to the unit’s relatively light weight, I was
a bit skeptical of the MC50’s ability to handle an all-out
multi-channel sonic assault. I need not have worried. I listened to the
now infamous battle scene several times at volumes ranging from low to
annoying-the-neighbors loud. The character and detail remained
consistent at all listening levels without any signs of compression or
harshness.

Lastly
I listened to the DTS version of the Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over (DTS),
which I also had out from my last review and was still fresh in my
memory. I listened to this disc through both the Monster THX Select
speaker system and my reference Canton Ergo system. One of the areas on
this disc that I listen to closely for overall system control is the
drumbeat on “Hotel California.” While the drums were noticeably
different between the two speakers, the Halcro amplifier demonstrated
good control over both. I felt that I was close to getting most, if not
all, of the detail that the speakers were capable of. The imaging and
sound staging was as solid as with any other amplifier and I felt that
the individual images were etched with great precision, making each
image on the stage sound a bit smaller.

The DownsideThe
Halcro MC50 is hard to criticize when it comes to performance. The
sound is clean, detailed and neutral. My only criticisms of the unit
are related to set-up. The binding posts had plastic shrouds with
openings that allow the speaker cables to be inserted from one angle
only. These covers can make the insertion of certain cables difficult.
The covers can be circumvented by the use of banana plugs if your
speaker cables are so equipped.

Conclusion
Halcro’s MC series provides listeners with another option in well-made
high-quality multi-channel amplifiers. I believe that the MC50 will
develop a strong following for use in 5.1 music systems due to its
finesse and detail. Each channel of the amplifier is capable of extreme
accuracy and the precision to capture the slightest nuances of the
recording. The Halcro MC50 will please those listeners who demand
detail and neutrality for music and film playback in a high performance
theater.

Halcro is no flash in the pan. The gear has the chops to hang on stage
with the likes of Classe’, Krell, Mark Levinson, Meridian, Linn and the
other big boys that grace the shelves of the world’s best home
theaters. Hype like “the best amplifier in the world” is very dangerous
when considering the subjective differences among the top-performing
amps on the market. To my ears, you can hear that the Halcro MC50 lives
up to the hype and surpasses even lofty expectations for build, design
and, most importantly, sound.